Stephonee from Poorer Than You

Stephonee is a mom, a wife and a personal friend. She blogs over at PoorerThanYou.com where she talks all about money- where to start if you’re clueless and what you can do if you want to invest/save. Although not in a financial career, she has lot of experience- mainly starting where she ran out of money and had to drop out of college. Today, she sits with a net worth of over $100K.

Welcome!

[:] Your website, poorerthanyou has been around for quite some time. Tell us your backstory and how you started.
●     I learned about personal finance blogging in college when I was so broke
●     She figured out that she didn’t have enough money to stay in college, dropped out of it and decided to write about it so people can follow along my journey
●     Net worth started at negative $26k when she was 20; took 12 years to turn around at 32 now
●     She ended up going back to school so had to take out more student loans.

[:] What are the options when you move from one job to another with your 401K? What should you do?
●     Stephonee had a great job, her dream job and but got laid off but she ended up working for a 401k administrator in her new job
●     The easiest thing to do is to roll into new 401k to keep everything consolidated in one bucket
●     You can also roll your 401k into an IRA; the downside is that if you do get sued, money in IRAs can be included in your personal assets
●     If you already have an IRA, don’t roll your existing 401k over into your existing IRA, so don’t co-mingle your assets

[:] Do you have any specific steps as to HOW you do that?
●     The administrator or company that runs your 401k or 403b, call them (whoever is gonna have the money), normally you will have to fill in a form.

[:] We had a listener write in that she is moving countries- do you have any advice as to what she could/ should be doing with her American retirement plan?
●     You pretty much can’t, the money is sheltered from US taxation
●     You will be charged for early withdrawal
●     They could roll it into a traditional IRA as it can allow withdrawals without penalty, one is an education exclusion

[:] We’ve talked about it before on Chain of Wealth but, if a person’s job does not offer a 401K - what other retirement options are out there?
●     You should be looking into IRAs
●     If your health plan is a high deductible account, as long as your plan qualifies, you can open a HSA on your own
●     Your best bet is often to convince your company to get a 401k if you are working for a small company
●     44 Million people in the gig economy (1099s), you are eligible to open a solo 401k on your own

[:] You’ve recently started a new project on-line called the Money-Middletons, how is this different to what is already in the blogosphere?
●     Stephonee has heard a ton of people in the realm of “I can’t afford this”.
●     There’s a ton of great retirement advice out there if you are able to max you retirement accounts, but the people in the middle are often left out.
●     She started a blog to share posts that will help people

[:] Value Link: Grab a free copy of Damion’s new book on QRPs

[:] What does your saving and retirement plan look like?
●     Big focus on taxes and reducing taxes as much as possible (legally of course)
●     Low cost index funds

[:] What are some favorite books you can recommend?
●     Book: The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
●     Book: The Bogleheads Guide to Investing
●     Book: Get Money

[:] A favorite quote?
●     Not really one quote but,'You’re gonna regret something and it’s ok'

[:] Any last 401K/ retirement advice
●     A summary plan description is required for all 401ks, ask your employer for one.